


Waterline

by misura



Category: Sahara (2005)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-03
Updated: 2012-07-03
Packaged: 2017-11-09 02:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/450481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dirk does something slightly stupid. Al does something slightly romantic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waterline

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heeroluva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heeroluva/gifts).



> prompt: _Dirk/Al, fun in the water_
> 
>  
> 
>  _All the best things in my life have happened to me in the water._  
>  \- Dirk Pitt (in _Sahara_ )

In hindsight, maybe it hadn't been the smartest idea to stay under for an extra half hour - not so much because he hadn't got the air (he did, and plenty more to spare) but because he'd said he'd be under for two hours, which meant he knew that Al, against all logic and common sense and the experience of a lifelong friendship, expected him to be under for two hours, no more, no less.

A needlessly worried Al tended to turn into a cranky Al, and a cranky Al tended to turn into an Al who hogged the tequila and 'accidentally' dropped Dirk's dinner into his lap, which was annoying, to say nothing of a waste of admittedly not very good food.

On the other hand, when he'd said 'two hours', they hadn't yet known he'd need to move about half a ton of rocks just to get to the captain's cabin. Based on previous experience, if he'd left on time, he'd have come back down tomorrow to find out someone else had profited from all of his hard work, and then before they knew it, they'd be chasing pirates or millionaires or who-knew-whos while dodging bullets and blowing things up.

So. Better for everyone to just get it over with, really.

(If he kept telling himself that, maybe he might start believing it, even if Al wouldn't.)

 

There was the sound of someone (Al, obviously) yelling "Dirk!" at the top of his lungs, just in case there were any bad guys within a five-mile radius who were looking for the _Queen Christina_ but hadn't quite pinpointed their location yet. It was followed by a splash.

"Al! You lost your hat!" (Rudi, clearly, and Dirk would bless him for staging a distraction for the Al-mother, except that firstly, there was _no_ distracting Al when he got like this and secondly, Rudi was probably not doing with any sort of premeditation.) "Again."

"Who cares about that stupid hat?" Al yelled back, still at top volume. "Dirk! Are you OK?"

For a moment, Dirk considered faking it. A cramped ankle, maybe; it happened sometimes, even to the best of them. It might get him out of the water safe and sound at least, even if Al was bound to catch on sooner rather than later and then there'd still be hell to pay.

"I'm fine." Now would be a good time to hold up a trophy, except that they were going to need the Thompson for that. "I'm fine, Al."

The expression on Al's face went from worried to pissed off in under half a second. Kind of scary.

Dirk held up his hands in a placating gesture, treading water. "Now, look, I know I said it'd be two hours but there were some unforeseen circumstances, all right?"

"The hell it is," Al snapped. "You say two hours, you damn well better _be_ two hours."

"Don't you want me to rescue your hat?" Dirk spotted it bobbing in the water a few hundred feet away. Not sinking yet, but it would only be a matter of time. "Your favorite, right? Don't you want me to rescue your favorite hat?"

Al scowled at him. It wasn't quite the same as him saying 'yes, Dirk, please rescue my favorite hat', but the hat was in the general direction of the ship, so Dirk opted to interpret it as such anyway.

"You're a moron," Al said, when Dirk was just barely out of reach. "Really, Dirk, what were you _thinking_?"

" _I_ 'm a moron?" The thing was: Dirk supposed that maybe Al kind of had a point. In this line of work, you needed to be able to rely on people. You didn't want someone to tell you you'd got two hours of air and then find out that actually, it was more like ninety minutes. "How often have we been over this, huh? Huh? I _improvised_ , all right? I do that sometimes. You know that."

"Oh, I know that all right," Al grumbled.

Dirk reached Al's hat. It was light blue, floppy and for the moment utterly soaked. He was tempted to drop it on Al's head by way of an attempt to cool his head. "I'm sorry I made you worry."

"I wasn't worried."

Dirk considered. "I'm sorry I got you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you," Al said, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Dirk was about to point out that Al sure put on a good show of _not_ being angry, when Al added: "Just disappointed." which was a low blow, really.

"That's a low blow, and you know it. Only Sandecker's allowed to pull that sort of stuff."

Al held out his hand. Dirk handed over the hat. "Fine, I was worried. Happy now?"

"Not really," Dirk said honestly. "I mean, I _was_ , because there's some seriously nice stuff down there - we're going to make those good folks from the Museum really happy, but come on, Al. Thirty lousy minutes."

"Takes a lot less time than that to drown."

"I wasn't going to drown."

Al shook his head, his expression stubborn. "You don't know that. Something might have gone wrong."

Dirk would have argued - he was an excellent swimmer and an even better diver and he'd had _plenty_ of air left, but by now, they were within earshot of the _Ann Maria_ , which also meant he could see the way the better part of the crew, invluding Rudi and the Admiral, was standing near the railing, looking at them.

"You boys maybe want to argue _out_ of the water?"

"Just a moment, Admiral," Al yelled back, which couldn't possibly mean anything good.

"It's all down there, sir. The whole thing." Dirk looked up hopefully. The Admiral smiled back friendly enough, but Dirk couldn't help but notice there wasn't exactly anyone rushing to get him back on board. "There were just a few rocks that had gotten in the way."

"Look, Dirk," Al said, and okay, yeah, that tone made it plenty clear he was in deep trouble here. Which wasn't a surprise, precisely, except that Dirk didn't see what Al could do to him. "I'm not going to kill you for making me think maybe you were dead or something. I mean, think about it. That wouldn't make any damn sense, would it?"

"Absolutely."

Al nodded. "Exactly. So I'm going to do something else."

"Yeah? What's - " Dirk started, when Al grabbed him and pressed their heads - no, wait, their _mouths_ together. Lips. As in: kissed him.

It was a good thing Dirk was such an expert swimmer, or he might still have drowned.

"There," Al said, looking only faintly embarrassed as he let go - and that slight red in his cheeks might have been purely from lack of breath, actually.

Dirk didn't consider himself a bad kisser (who did?) but he'd been rather surprised. "What there?" He didn't think Al had gotten the full experience, really, which was a shame, because if there was anyone who deserved the full experience of being kissed by him, it would have to be Al. Dirk just hadn't thought Al'd be interested, before.

Which, obviously, Al might still not be, but still. Those who play at bowls, and so on.

There came a few catcalls this time. Al made no movement to pull away, though - sooner the opposite, in fact, which might mean Dirk had been wasting a whole lot of time going around kissing other people, even if, of course, experience was always valuable.

"Today, please?" the Admiral called, and Dirk remembered about the _Queen Christina_. She didn't seem very important right now, though.

On the other hand, Dirk supposed it wouldn't hurt to continue things in a place where they wouldn't need to worry about keeping their heads above water all the time.


End file.
